This invention relates to a game apparatus and more particularly to an improved apparatus for tossing and catching a missile member such as a pair of balls connected by a flexible cord as well as to the construction of such missile and the implement by which it is tossed and caught.
Game apparatus in which a stick or other implement is used to sequentially toss and catch a missile in the form of a pair of balls connected by a flexible cord are relatively well known and include the examples pictured in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,120,075 issued Jun. 7, 1938 to Roosman; U.S. Pat. No. 3,049,352 to Hancock issued Aug. 14, 1962; U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,848 issued Dec. 27, 1994 to Coleman; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,995 issued Jan. 3, 1995 to Clarke. While suitable for the intended purposes, the devices set forth in these patents are particularly adapted for a rather sedate, slow moving type of game action in which the missiles are tossed by the stick with an underhand motion. This is particularly true in regard to the devices shown by the Clarke and Hancock patents.
A more desirable form of play, however which is more in tune with today's fast action and athletic interest is one in which the stick or tossing/catching implement can be used more easily in an overhand fashion by the game participants who are normally young men and women or children such that greater elevation and distance can be imparted to the missile member thus increasing the interest, athleticism, and conditioning effects of the game as well as heightening its play value and speed. Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to present such a game apparatus which is particularly adapted for use for such overhead tossing techniques and a high speed athletic type of game. These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by a game apparatus comprising a dual-bodied missile member comprising two body elements connected to each other by a flexible elongated connecting portion and a tossing/catching implement to toss and catch said missile member, said implement being a stick including an elongated body having a grasping portion at one end, and a toss/catch portion at the other end thereof, said body toss/catch portion being a shaft with upper and lower ends and having an overall elongated generally cylindrical outer surface and connected to the grasping portion at its lower end and terminating at its upper end in an unobstructed terminus with a smooth outer surface such that the elongated connecting portion can slip off the shaft at such terminus without impediment and said shaft having at least one annular outwardly generally radially extending ledge portion formed intermediate said upper and lower shaft ends, said ledge portion forming a rest for supporting said elongated connecting portion of said missile member on said shaft prior to its toss therefrom.